Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Warsaw Street Types

Józef Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 n


Józef Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 e


Józef Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 a


Józef Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 b


Józef Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 c


Józef Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 d


Józef Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 f


Józef Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 g


Józef Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 h


Józef Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 k


Józef Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 l


Józef Rapacki - Warsaw Street Types 1926 m


'Z dawnej i niedawnej Warszawy" : album typów ulicznych : 20 autolitografji' (approx: The Recent and Former Warsaw: An Album of Street Types: 20 lithographs) from the Polish Digital Library (1926).

Józef Rapacki (1871-1929) trained as an artist in Warsaw, Cracow and Munich. He travelled to Italy on many occasions and was known as a landscape artist early in his career, but later in life he was more inclined towards illustration and graphic art works.

I'm not sure I could correctly identify all of the trades depicted among this suite of sometimes dubious-looking urban characters. There's certainly no attempt to embellish the portraits: these are not romantic sketches; although the subjects are generally displayed with a proud countenance. The pictures are somewhat reminiscent of the urchins and street people found in Mayhew's study of the London poor from the 1860s.
Posted by peacay at

5 comments:

  1. Karla23 July, 2008 13:52

    I'm not sure how far I'd trust that statue-vendor...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zooey Glass24 July, 2008 17:57

    These images are still very popular in Poland, copied countless times. Thanks, Paul

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rima Staines25 July, 2008 01:13

    Wow, these are wonderful drawings...
    Funny I just posted about my "job" as a tinker, all the dubious characters I meet on the streets and the drawings I make that are inspired by them... there must be something in the air!

    ReplyDelete
  4. porter hovey25 July, 2008 05:48

    Once again lovely, lovey drawings. I love every single one of them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Island Bookworm25 July, 2008 13:33

    Wonderful drawings. Reminds me of Dickens.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are all moderated so don't waste your time spamming: they will never show up.

If you include ANY links that aren't pertinent to the blog post or discussion they will be deleted and a rash will break out in your underwear.

Also: please play the ball and not the person.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.